Archive for May 2010

The Brazil national team will play Zimbabwe and Tanzania as it prepares for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

This development will mean that people in Zimbabwe and Tanzania will be able to watch some top class football action
from their local stadiums.

Its rather unfortunate that many teams have not chosen to play the countries neighbouring South Africa as they
prepare for the World Cup.

Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Angola all played at this year's Africa Nation Cup and I think they would give good
practice to the World Cup teams especially those facing African opposition in their groups.

For the first time this year world number one Roger Federer is at the French Open as the defending champion after winning last year and therefore a lot more focus is on him when its usually Rafael Nadal who gets the most focus at Roland Garros.

The Swiss tennis player advanced to third round at the French Open and remains, along with Nadal, as the one of biggest favorites.

Federer signed this Wednesday his second victory in the 2010 Roland Garros without dropping a set, and therefore left out of the second round the Colombian Alejandro Falla after one hour and 59 minutes in a day that the rain appeared twice and interrupted the game at one of its best moments of the match.

I think that for Federer the victory in this tournament will means more than one merit, starting with beating his great rival Nadal if both get to the final, plus maintaining his place as world number one and show that he has no problem playing on clay, as has been said on several occasions.

Also, Federer is approaching the record for most weeks as world ranking leader with 284 weeks at No. 1, which now belongs to American Pete Sampras with 286, but if Roger achieves the Roland Garros, will have at least two weeks at the top and to overcome Sampras.

In the third round Federer will face the inexperienced Julian Reister, in a game that is scheduled for Friday.
Undoubtedly, Federer is the favorite to win this game considering that these players have not faced each other before and that Reister has reached the third round exceeds all expectations.

However, I also have to give some credit to Reisteras as the German is 12-2, including qualifying matches and his victory in the first round against Feliciano Lopez in straight sets was impressive.

Finally, something to consider in case that we can watch the expected final between Federer and Nadal is that this week the Swiss remains on top of the rankings with 10 030 points, which is closely followed by the Spanish Nadal with 6880.

Scott McDonald will not be going to the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa after being omitted from the 28 man squad that will leave for South Africa this week.

The squad will further be reduced to the required 23 and the other players will stay in South Africa and be on stand-by in case
of any injuries.

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek thinks that McDonald does not fit his preferred formation of having one striker upfront and he has decided to leave him.

Although McDonald has never scored a goal for the Socceroos so far I think he must be given a chance because he is always
going to be a goal threat and this World Cup could have been the time he was going to break his duck.

I think now there is a crisis for strikers because in the squad there is Josh Kennedy and Nikita Rukavytsya left as recognised strikers.

How much the Socceroos miss Mark Viduka?

I think Verbeek is looking for goals to come from midfield from players like Tim Cahill. That could be expecting too much.

Also out of the squad is Nick Carle and defender Jade North. I am not surprised by Carle's omission because he hasn't been playing regularly for his team Crystal Palace.

He was on the bench in the last two matches of the season and never got onto the pitch.

I am now very keen to see what happens in the next match against Denmark. The New Zealand did not give any pointers and I think that was understandable but against Denmark I expect to see more cohesion.